I’m Not the One Who Seduced the Grand Duke Chapter 43

“I think I’m going to have to sell myself a little.”

“……Pardon?”

Jean was so bewildered by my declaration that I was going to cause an uproar in the capital’s high society that what I said next nearly made him do a double take.

So this was what I meant by using the press.

Yes. Exactly this.

This was the situation I had wanted!

“What on earth are you thinking? No, wait, you’re deliberately bringing this controversy upon yourself!”

“Don’t worry. Everything is going according to plan.”

Whoa, whoa. I had thought everything through, so I held up a hand toward Laura, who was making a fuss.

“Even if it’s a newspaper that publishes B-grade tabloids, they’ll inevitably be cautious when it comes to the Temple.”

Because that was an entirely different realm.

And there was no denying it was a little old-fashioned, too.

“Gossip papers are, by definition, places that deal in spicy stories. Their job is to attract as much attention as possible. The Temple, on the other hand, has a very specific audience.”

Unless something major happened, most people simply weren’t interested in what went on at the Temple.

Not unless they were devout believers.

So from the perspective of a gossip paper, the Temple wasn’t exactly the most appetizing target.

But.

“There’s already a precedent. Remember when they were going around saying I stole Leon’s chastity and all that?”

They had deliberately emphasized the Temple in order to tarnish my reputation for propriety and emphasize what a promiscuous lady I supposedly was.

Which meant—

“I knew they’d immediately pounce if I told them they were connected to some filthy scandal involving me.”

Without even realizing they were actually helping me.

It was a very simple story.

Let me briefly go back in my memory.

It was when Leon and I had put our heads together after coming out of our meeting with the High Priest at the Temple.

 

***

 

“Those nobles who supposedly paid donations to High Priest Servando. There should be some kind of list with their names on it, right?”

“There probably is. They have to record every donation they receive. However, if he siphoned off donations somewhere along the way……”

“There would be a separate ledger for that.”

Vincent explained.

“Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to distinguish who gave what.”

“But the High Priest is more meticulous than he looks. It may be difficult to find.”

Sir Briar, who had been quietly listening, cautiously added his opinion.

He was probably right.

Even if we searched, it would be difficult to find evidence of embezzlement.

And even if we somehow succeeded, with so few people in this small Temple, tracking down the culprit would be like drinking a cup of soup.

However.

“That’s fine. I’m not trying to steal the ledger itself. If we don’t even know whether it exists, rummaging around the Temple for no reason would only make us look suspicious.”

“Then what are you after?”

“What I want is, quite literally, the names of the nobles who paid donations and enjoyed private prayers with the Grand Duke of Bernstein. No, wait. The names of the nobles who enjoyed private and intimate time with him.”

“Wait, Erna.”

Leon, who had been silent until then, suddenly cut in.

“Intimate time? I’ve never had anything like that.”

“Of course you haven’t. But your partners enjoyed it, didn’t they?”

“……”

Leon stared at me with a displeased expression.

Once because he had unknowingly been used by the High Priest.

And twice because his fiancée had found out about it in this manner.

For a moment, unmistakable killing intent directed at a very specific target flashed in his blue eyes.

Whoa, whoa.

Think wholesome thoughts. Wholesome thoughts.

I was only teasing him a little.

“Anyway, what matters right now is who participated in the High Priest’s private business dealings within this Temple. Leon, you remember roughly who you met, right?”

“……Damn it. So that’s what it was.”

Leon muttered as though he still couldn’t believe it.

He seemed quite shocked, but I urged him on, telling him we could deal with that later.

Fortunately, several names slowly slipped from his lips.

“Hmm. There must have been quite a lot of them. The fact that you can single out only a few means those meetings must have been pretty memorable, huh?”

……I needlessly poked at him one more time, only to suffer the indignity of having one cheek pinched.

“I remember a few more.”

“Good. We don’t need all of them. Ah, but preferably, I’d like people who aren’t particularly influential in high society.”

“Wouldn’t the opposite usually be better?”

Nobles from less prominent families.

Families with little recognition.

When I specifically asked for people like that, Leon tilted his head in confusion.

But even as he did so, his hand diligently continued filling the paper.

And just like that, the perfect list was completed.

And that list was……

 

***

 

“They’re really making a huge fuss.”

I gave a small laugh as I flipped through the gossip paper containing information that matched the list Leon had given me exactly.

Some parts had been redacted in the name of protecting personal information, but there was no way anyone could fail to guess who they were.

[Viscountess A. Miss B, daughter of Baron __. Madame C of a certain dress salon……]

“But why did you select only people who aren’t very influential in high society, Marquess? If you were going to expose this anyway, wouldn’t the impact have been much greater if you revealed the names of famous or powerful people?”

“That’s exactly why.”

I calmly answered Vincent’s question, which was brimming with curiosity.

“If we exposed the names of the major figures involved in this incident, they would try to bury or suppress the whole thing.”

However—

“If only the names of the small fry are revealed while the names of the major figures remain undisclosed…… they’ll definitely pressure the High Priest to make sure their own names never appear in the newspaper.”

“……Ah!”

Exactly.

The fear that their names might be on that list.

And the anxiety that came with it.

They can’t pressure the newspaper or the gossip sheets, because doing so would amount to admitting their guilt. They don’t even know how far the list goes. Then the only option left is……

To pressure the person who had created that list in the first place.

High Priest Servando.

“We never had a ledger in our possession to begin with. Of course, one might actually exist. It’s just not in our hands. But now we’ve planted the suspicion that such a thing might really exist. And then……”

“The noblewomen and young ladies who are getting nervous because they have something to hide will protest to the High Priest. About the fact that he kept a ledger without their knowledge, and about the fact that it was leaked.”

“Exactly. And they’ll hound him to resolve this immediately.”

The High Priest, who had already received substantial bribes from so many people, would be completely trapped.

“Now all we have to do is sit back and wait.”

For them to make the first move.

And it didn’t take long for it to work.

 

***

 

[Things are absolutely insane here right now.

Every day, nobles are sending people to protest. They’re demanding that we clean this up immediately.]

The next morning.

House Zaherette.

Yes. Got it.

I smiled as I skimmed through the letter from the Temple.

Just in case, when we had left the Temple, I had asked Sir Briar to report the situation there to me.

The effect was faster than I expected.

“Isn’t that a little too much?”

“What is?”

“You’re exchanging letters with another man right in front of your fiancé and smiling.”

It was only then that I realized what he was talking about.

Leon, who had been hovering around me at every opportunity lately, spoke with a pout.

He had been like this ever since he saw the Temple seal stamped on the envelope.

“That other man happens to be your former subordinate.”

“Then isn’t that even more problematic? It makes it sound like there’s an even more elaborate story between you two.”

Leon grumbled under his breath, clearly displeased, before snatching the offending letter right out of my hands.

Well, I’d already read it all, so I didn’t really mind.

Instead, I picked up the newspaper.

With this new piece of bait, the gossip is going to spread even faster.

Since so many nobles were involved, high society was already on high alert.

But the more tense things became, the more excited a certain place grew.

The newspaper offices.

It was already entertaining enough when they could tear apart a single person.

But now there were multiple people involved.

Good heavens.

They were practically desperate to get their hands on the complete version of that so-called list, no matter what it took.

And the more desperate they became, the more anxious the nobles would get.

As part of this vicious cycle, the enormous amount of money being donated to the Temple was gradually revealed.

At this point, anyone perceptive enough must have realized it.

That the Temple was keeping a secret stash of money on the side.

Everything was going exactly according to plan.

“But are you going to be all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever asked what you thought.”

When I decided to replace the High Priest.

I had simply been furious because he was getting in our way and because Leon had been exploited by him, so I had acted without thinking.

But now that I thought about it, there was something important I had never confirmed.

“Are you really okay with leaving the priesthood? You entered the Temple of your own accord because you wanted to become a priest, didn’t you?”

Even though he had gone against His Majesty the Emperor’s opposition to do so.

It was a position he had worked so hard to obtain, a place he had won for himself.

I wondered if he was really okay with simply throwing it away.

But—

“If that’s what you’re worried about, you don’t have to be. I was never particularly interested in becoming a priest in the first place.”

……Huh?